Sydney Adventist Hospital

Sydney Adventist Hospital, commonly known as the San, is a large private hospital in Sydney, Australia, located on Fox Valley Road in Wahroonga. Established on 1 January 1903, as a not-for-profit organisation, it was originally named the Sydney Sanitarium from which its colloquial name was derived. The hospital is operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, whose Australian headquarters are located in the immediate vicinity of the San. The hospital offers a broad range of acute medical, surgical, diagnostic, outpatient, support and wellness services, including Executive Health Checks at the Fox Valley Medical & Dental Centre.

As a not-for-profit health care facility, 2,200 staff and 700 accredited medical officers provide services for more than 50,000 inpatients and over 160,000 outpatients annually at the San.

The hospital is the base for the nursing course offered by Avondale College.

History

Sydney Sanitarium opened in Wahroonga on 1 January 1903 with a bed capacity of 70 and was known as a ‘home of health’ and as a place where people learned to stay well. The original Hospital building was designed by Dr Merritt Kellogg, brother of Dr John Harvey Kellogg. The Sanitarium became widely known as the ‘San’, and today, many years after its 1973 official name change to Sydney Adventist Hospital, it is still fondly referred to as ‘the San’ Hospital.